Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain
Covid
On the issue of returning to normal in the UK. . . . Many politicians fear being pulled up for calling for a herd immunity strategy last year, and they feel they have to make up for it by going for a zero-Covid strategy now. Despite the fact that - as with flu - it's unachievable. As I’ve said a few times, Covid responses have always had more to do with politics than anything else. And will go on doing so for a while yet. Not just in the UK, of course. Bureaucrats aren’t known for relinquishing control. And this is The Age of the Bureaucrat. Nowhere more so than in the EU. If technocrats can be considered bureaucrats. Which they surely can.
Cosas de España
Later than any reasonable person would have expected - and possibly stimulated by the plague of Frenchfolk coming here for Easter - Spain has imposed a Covid test requirement on those coming by land. I don’t know about yachts but suspect not.
HT to Lenox Napier of Business Over Tapas for this item on a ‘hippie’ village up near the León-Galicia border.
A couple of my neighbours are spatting about an issue I think I mentioned a while ago - not enough parking spaces in front of our houses. Which spotlights the question of whether one can park in front of a gate which, in theory, is used for garage access but which doesn't have on it an official No Parking sign(un Vado) rented from the local council. I was planning to raise this at the next meeting or our Comunidad but will now wait on events.
En passant, Spanish friends all felt it'd be a waste of time getting a community-wide 'agreement' not to park in front of each other's gates, as this would be ignored both by residents and their visitors. The only practical solution, they insisted, was to pay for a vado and then call the police, if it was ignored. Which might well be a valid view but not one which will ensure good neighbourly relations. But, then, neither does the current stand-off. And maybe I'm being too 'British'.
Talking of cultural norms . . . A friend who's recently begun to teach English privately has had her first taste of Spanish 'informality' - the failure to advise that the pupil won't be coming this week. This is so common an occurrence that tyros are always advised by experienced colleagues: If at all possible, get your money upfront and never give any back for lessons missed. And never compensate with a replacement lesson. The worst example of this lack of consideration/thought-less-ness happened to my daughter, when an excellent weekly pupil simply stopped coming after months of lessons, without saying anything at all. A high-level businessman, to boot. Whom you might have thought would have a degree of courtesy. But, anyway, one gets inured to it.
Cousas de Galiza
Maria's Tsunami: Days 55&56
Germany
It seems that the country’s poor vaccination performance is down to its excessive efficiency. Which I guess is counter-intuitive
France
Ambrose Evans Pritchard has harsh words to say about Macron, ending with The European political order as we know it may soon be over.
Quote of the Week
Vaccines were supposed to liberate us, not expand the surveillance state.
Finally . . .
Since November 2019 there's been a place in Madrid called La Pollería. Or 'The Prickery'* which sells phallic- shaped gofres, Now there's one in Valencia too. Ironically enough, very near Plaza de la Virgen.
* Or maybe 'The Cockery' . . . Pollo: Hen. Polla: Cockerel; Cock: Penis (in case you hadn't twigged).
3 comments:
I'm totally informal about my classes. I charge at the end of the month; if the student doesn't come for half the month, I only charge half; after fifteen minutes wait time I assume a student isn't coming. There are some that tell me they won't be coming, but not all do. It's not exactly professional, but I am also exercising sub rosa, nor do I completely depend on that income to live. If that were the case, I would charge beforehand, and advise everyone that there would be no refunds for missed classes. And possibly lose a couple of students for my "hoity-toity" airs.
Colin,
Our ship will be coming home soon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iyn2q6s1Sk
When you are inured to something, you have probably had a lot of persistent exposure to it & it's usually something negative. It remorselessly gnaws at your sense of wellbeing. Being indifferent would be better, as it's lack of emotion, but more difficult to achieve, Grasshopper!
Maria,
If you do not value your time neither will your students. For over a decade, I ran a business treating ceramic floors in leisure centres to improve slip resistance & reduce injuries from slips, when the tiles were wet on poolside.
In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the process, I would offer to travel to the site & treat an area of tiles, but "not for free". I would say I was willing to treat the test area "at my expense", thus communicating to the potential client that I was a businessman & I valued the site visit as a good investment of my time.
Every test area resulted in a contract, because the client had already admitted to me in previous conversations that they had issues with floor safety. My process improved slip resistance so well that we gave a five year warranty. We worked overnight, charged £16 per square metre & returned the floor for full & immediate use in the morning.
The alternative for the leisure centre would have been to employ tradesmen, close the facility, hack up the slippery tiles, make good & replace with new tiles. Twenty years ago, that would have cost at least £70 per square metre, plus the loss in revenue during the closure. Most of my contracts were for 250 square metres or more & we had plenty of very profitable work as the process cost me £3 per square metre.
Whilst your tutoring might be "under the horizon" for now, it could grow & modifying your terms now, will make any legitimate growth easier to control. I appreciate that bureaucracy in Spain is a nightmare for anyone forming a business, but start off as you mean to go on. Good fortune to you, anyway.
Perry. The canal is now open.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auVigoyt_Es
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